Prepaid Mobile Review – Crazy Johns (April 2012)

Crazy Johns Mobile is one of the original and most accomplished mobile operators in the Australian market. Originally providing their contracts through Telstra, they are now owned and operated through the Vodafone network. In addition to mobile services Crazy John’s also now offer prepaid broadband and a number of other services for the youth and family markets. The Crazy John’s prepaid mobile product range has undergone some significant changes this year. These changes have impacted all of Vodafone’s prepaid mobile services. The biggest of these changes has been the introduction of free calls and txt between Crazy John’s mobile phones.Selecting the right prepaid mobile plan isn’t just about getting the right price or expiry on your credits, it’s also about evaluating what provider the people you mostly call are on. If you and your partner/children/friends all began using a service like Crazy John’s, then you could in effect get a lot more value out of your credits, because you could call each other for free.Crazy John’s offer 4 prepaid mobile plans, the Basic $10, the Prepaid Caps and the Flat Chat Plans. Crazy Johns also now has the Flat Chat Unlimited Plan.The Basic $10 offers $10 credit, with 15c call rate, 15c connection fee and 15c sms. Credit lasts for 30 days. This looks cheap but the Flat Chat range is actually cheaper with 10c/min calls and a 10c flagfall. FlatChat lets you recharge between $15 – $95, expiry is 90 days up to $35, increases to 120 days for $45 and 180 days for $65 and 365 days for $95. 500MB of data is also available via this plan with increments of 10KB, excess is 3c/MB.Crazy Johns must be experiencing some success with this plan as they have launched the Unlimited option which offers unlimited calls/txt plus 4GB of data for $39. expiry is 30 days. You can compare Crazy John’s Flat Chat Unlimited with the rest of the unlimited prepaid offers here.Unlimited plans are providing to be rather popular at the moment and Crazy Johns’ offer is certainly up there. With the rollout of the latest Vodafone network upgrades you are not only now getting better coverage but also great value for money with this plan.The final product group are the Caps. The Caps start at $19 an increase to $79. Call rates are unfortunately a little on the high side; 39c per 30 sec (78c per min) with a 35c flag fall. You do however get added credit to any network plus free unlimited talk “Crazy Talk” with each cap. The credit starts at $60 for the $19 Cap and increases to $1300 for the $79 Cap. Based on my calculations, with a $19 Cap you would get about 31, 2 min calls from your call credit. So that is one call a day. At the other end, the $79 Cap would give you 680 calls. The expiry of credit begins with 30 days on the $19 Cap and gets to 60 days on the $79 Cap. An added bonus offered by Crazy John’s is that it allows you to rollover any unused credit up to $1000 as long as you recharge before the credit expires. So don’t worry if you can’t use it all in the credit period, you can save it up for the following month.Whilst Crazy Johns calls it GPRS, I am advised that it is fast mobile internet (same used by Red Bull Mobile). The Caps offer 500MB for $19 increasing up to 3GB on the $79.Crazy Johns have made several changes to the prepaid plans already in 2012 and so I expect more from them given we are so early into the year.

Notes:
1 – rate per minute
2 – expiry period in days
3 – cost of a 2 minute call. Number of 2 minute calls made using credit provided to any network (excludes calls within network). Where no minimum credit is indicated, $20 is used.

More details

Product

Crazy John’s Caps

Crazy John’s Basic

Crazy Johns Flat Chat

Flat Chat Unlimited

Network

Vodafone

Summary

Offer great value for calls within the network and outside, also come with loads of internet access.

If you’re not a big talker or just need some quick credit to tie you over until pay day, then the Basic $10 prepaid plan is for you. A great low recharge value with simple low rates!

Like to talk FLATchat? Or text your mates FLATchat? You’ll get 1¢ texts, a flat 10¢ per minute call rate plus flagfall, …AND you can call your mates overseas with great international rates as low as 1¢ per minute!

Another competitive unlimited offer. If you are looking to spend around $40 per month then consider Crazy Johns.

Internet

70c per MB

3c per MB

4GB

Video Calls

10c/min

15c/min

78c/min

Unlimited

Calls within network

Unlimited

Standard Call Rates Apply

Unlimited

Unlimited

Recharge locations

Phone, online & retail

1300/1800 Calls

1300 – standard call rates, 1800 – standard call rates

Unlimited

Website

www.crazyjohns.com.au

Phone

1300 303 646

Notes:
1 – rate per minute
2 – expiry period in days
3 – cost of a 2 minute call. Number of 2 minute calls made using credit provided to any network (excludes calls within network). Where no minimum credit is indicated, $20 is used.

Terms & ConditionsNetwork limitations and the capabilities of your mobile phone may affect your ability to receive the service. Your mobile phone must be compatible with our network – for a list of compatible mobile phones, see crazyjohns.com.au/equipment. Data for use in our mobile coverage area. Services subject to device capabilities, network limitations and customer locations.

BONUS OPTIONSBonus Options are only available on Crazy Cap recharges applied to Mobile Phone services (not Mobile Broadband services). You can choose between bonus text or bonus Data. You can change your Bonus Option when recharging online at crazyjohns.com.au. Otherwise the Bonus Option will default to your last choice (or Data for customers who have not yet selected). Bonus text are standard text messages sent within Australia to any standard mobile telephone number within Australia. You require an active credit balance (minimum 1c) to use your Bonus Options. We will draw down on your Bonus Options first (where applicable) before your Talk, Text, Data & More. Existing expiry period rules apply and Bonus Options do not rollover.

ONLINE RECHARGE BONUSAvailable only on Crazy Caps, not available with any other offer, credit card purchase only.

Text/MMS excluded servicesAll Text/MMS (included and bonus) for this offer applies to standard personal Text/MMS sent to individuals within Australia, and excludes premium and re routed Text/MMS. The offer cannot be used for commercial or resale purposes. Text/MMS to Pivotel network not available.